A gun crew drills at one of the ship's secondary battery guns, likely a 6-inch rapid-fire piece, during exercises off Menemsha Bight near Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts — waters commonly used for naval gunnery practice out of nearby Newport, Rhode Island. The handwritten caption and visible rigging place this photograph firmly within USS Columbia's active service era, roughly 1898-1907, when protected cruisers like Columbia trained crews in live gunnery as part of routine fleet exercises. Project: 218600